


Avalanche Warning

by angel_b0mb



Category: Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: Bondage, M/M, Melancholy, Multi, Polyamory, Sibling Incest, Tentacle Sex, Threesome, Twincest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:15:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26530504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_b0mb/pseuds/angel_b0mb
Summary: Having his winter mountain trip cancelled and feeling slightly lonely, Jade doesn't have much to look forward to. Azul and Floyd worry about him, and come up with a plan to get Jade feeling better, and remind him just how much they love him.
Relationships: Azul Ashengrotto/Floyd Leech, Azul Ashengrotto/Floyd Leech/Jade Leech, Azul Ashengrotto/Jade Leech, Jade Leech/Floyd Leech
Kudos: 164





	Avalanche Warning

**Author's Note:**

> The greatest person on the planet has a birthday soon. They've been through a lot with me, and stuck by me even when I was dumb and hiding in my octopus pot. This is the bottom Jade getting spoiled you deserve. ilu. Happy Birthday.
> 
> Somehow, this is the longest sex scene I've ever written and I have no idea how I achieved it. I wanted to write a fic that's largely that sort-of Octa trio are all kinda mashed up in one big blender of inseparability, but at the same time Floyd and Jade still have their own unique relationship within it, too, and their own unique relationships with Azul. I also read a really good fic involving spreader bars so...I wanted to write a fic using spreader bars, and this seemed like a fun place to do it. Please forgive my selfishness.
> 
> (If you don't know what a spreader bar is, they look like this: https://imgur.com/a/sttsBEh . They're used in bondage and BDSM, often times at the ankles, but you can also use some on the thighs, and I thought that would be hot. But all that aside, this fic is not remotely BDSM-related in the least and has zero other elements of it.)
> 
> music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8T_fzSY34s & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ixagfGWHr4

Jade is absent.

Azul doesn’t know, yet, and Floyd had a certain feeling at some point during the day, Azul would inevitably come looking for him, and he’d tell him then, and only then. Telling Azul any time before that would lead to Azul getting increasingly naggy, and he’d attempt to heap any important, sensitive-type work on Floyd, which is really, the last thing he wants. He far prefers the physical work to anything like bookkeeping, if only because bookkeeping requires a certain amount of double-checking and then, in Azul’s world, triple-checking that he doesn’t have the patience for.

Jade does. Jade’s good at being patient.

But Jade’s not here.

And as Azul strolls through the back double-doors to the kitchen, right on schedule, Floyd decides to just head off the inevitable ticking time-bomb early.

“Hey,” he says, setting down the potato he’s only half-peeled, “lemme guess, you’re lookin’ for Jade.”

Azul’s eyes widen slightly, and he shifts his hands awkwardly around the inventory clipboard he’s holding. “Isn’t he…here?”

“Have ya seen ‘im?”

“No?”

“Because he’s not here,” Floyd says, yawning in a way that shows every last one of his dagger-like teeth. “Maybe ya didn’t notice, you were so busy yesterday with your nonsense—“

“You mean the budget spreadsheets?”

“Yeah. Those. But Jade stayed in our room all day yesterday, too. Goldfishie bright his homework by. He didn’t even perk up enough to go to class.”

“Why am I only hearing about this now?”

“Cause ya didn’t ask,” Floyd hisses, as he and Azul gradually close the distance between their faces, Azul having to lean to press his torso into the counter, and Floyd managing to lean over it easily by virtue of his height. “Anyways, I got a replacement, so it’s fine, right?”

Azul’s lips purse and his brow furrows. “Who did you extort?”

“Nobody,” Floyd says. “That’d be fun, but I don’t have anyone to extort. But it’s not like ya missed the hyena running tables out there, Azul, so I thought it was fine.”

“Is he working for madols?”

“I don’t work for anything else,” Ruggie announces, bursting into the kitchen with three full trays of dishes balanced on his arms. “Also, if y’all are having a private conversation, maybe the humans out there can’t hear you, but I’m getting you like HD mirror channels,” he says, wiggling his ears for show. “Loud n’ clear. Jade’s sick?”

“He’s not really ‘sick’,” Floyd says, picking the potato back up, looking at it, and then deciding he doesn’t feel like finishing the peeling. “He just doesn’t seem to feel like doin’ anything. He’s sad, I think.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Azul says. There’s a heavy edge to his voice. “Jade’s never missed a day of class before.”

“Hey, hey,” Ruggie says, setting the trays down at the sink and gradually unstacking the used plates, sorting them into piles, “doesn’t he just have like, the blues or something? Y’know, when you get depressed a little bit. It happens to Leona in winter, it gets darker earlier, so by the time ya leave school it’s like night. He sleeps longer then.”

“It’s possible for Leona to sleep longer?” Azul says, flipping through the sheets on his clipboard. “Because it’s dark?”

“He slept 72 hours straight after we lost Magift to Diasomnia last year.”

Floyd lets out a long, low whistle. “Sounds like when we get tanked out,” Floyd says. “Like, if humans capture you and put you in a big tank to look atcha all the time. And then you’re sad all the time. And you sleep and don’t feel like swimming.”

“Has that actually happened?”

“Dunno. It’s just where the name is from,” Floyd says. “I dunno if it’s true or not, if some mermaid actually got trapped like that. But now it’s just when you’re sad a lot and you can’t get out of bed.”

“So it’s like depression.”

“It’s serious,” Azul says firmly. “If you don’t try to treat it early, it can become continuous. Floyd, there’s some supplies I’ll have to pick up in Jade’s stead. Can I leave the lounge to you?”

“Azul, I don’t really wanna—I’ve got basketball after this.“

“For Jade’s sake? You can appoint someone to close up. Just make sure they don’t do a half-assed job.”

Ruggie’s eyes gleam brightly. “Do closers make more?”

“If they do,” Azul says on his way out of the double-doors, “it’s coming out of Floyd’s own pocket.”

“If it’s for Jade then,” Floyd huffs, pulling out a few extra hundred madols and slapping them in Ruggie’s palm. “But I’m not peeling any more of these potatoes.”

* * *

Jade’s made a cave.

Or that’s what Jade always calls it when Floyd rolls himself in blankets, a tendency which he does often. This time, it seems it’s Jade who’s in need of respite. Jade, who usually has his bed made so immaculately, has pulled the comforter all the way over his head, so much that nothing of him sticks out, save the tips of a few of his fingers. It’s cozy. Dark. Good for when you’re in a mood and need to shut out the surface world for a while and hide with your thoughts.

“Jade,” Floyd whispers, peeking under the covers.

In the darkness he can make out Jade’s single yellow eye, gleaming brightly as it blinks up at him. Then it closes, lids fluttering, and Jade’s whole body stirs, shifting. He’s shifting over towards the wall, and Floyd knows what that means.

 _Come in_.

He slides in next to Jade with ease and pulls the blankets over both of them. A cave for two, shutting out the rest of the world.

Floyd raises a hand to Jade’s face, cups it, tangles his legs with Jade’s own and pulls him in close with one arm around his back. Jade smells like he always does, sea foam and shoreline. He nuzzles into Jade’s nape, takes a deep inhale and feels all of his human muscles unwind, like he’s unfurling a phantom tail. Jade smells like home.

“Azul’s probably worried,” he says.

“Azul is always a worrier,” Jade says softly into Floyd’s shoulder. “Please tell him I’m fine.”

“Why’re you in a cave?”

“I’m tired,” Jade’s voice is sleepy, in spite of the fact it seems he’s slept nearly all day. “I’m tired and I feel like I can’t sleep enough.”

“Goldfishie brought your assignments.”

“I know. I took time to do them. I haven’t laid here all day, I promise.”

He pauses, sensing Jade already knows what he’s thinking, his deepest feelings. To Jade, anything left unsaid is always, in some way, said anyway. Before the altar of him, Floyd has always been lain bare, even the parts of him nobody else seems to be able to quite parse.

“I’m just worried too, Jade,” he says.“Haven’t seen you like this in a long time.”

“Floyd.” He murmurs it, softly. When he says it like that, Floyd can’t help but feel he’s the only one in the world who can pronounce his name right, like everyone else says it wrong.

“Jade.”

“I’m just…very tired,” he says finally. “I woke up and just felt like…like my legs wouldn’t move. My body didn’t want to wake.” He sighs. “Do you remember what an avalanche is?”

“Let’s see,” he says, nuzzling his face further into Jade’s neck. “We talked about that in History once, right? Pyroxene had a bad one two hundred years ago. I remember because talking about that snow made me wanna eat shaved ice,” he says, “with melon-flavored syrup.”

“I remember making you that,” Jade says, “because we couldn’t buy it. But I convinced Azul the shaved ice maker was good for business with Scarabia. Our profits went up by 30% that quarter.”

“Dunno how you remember all that stuff,” he says, snuggling up against Jade’s chest, cheek warping and smashing as he lays his head flat across the muscles of Jade’s chest. He can hear the beat of his heart so clearly in his ear, almost as if he was holding it in his own two hands. “Profits. It’s boring, isn’t that for Azul?”

“I’m the vice-prefect,” Jade says. “I have to keep track of it too. If I’m not meticulous, Azul can’t be meticulous either. And you don’t get shaved ice.”

“I feel like we’ve got all off-topic,” Floyd says, remembering what had suddenly led them down this trail of idle chatter. “You were talkin’ about snow.”

“Avalanches,” Jade says, “Are when snow gets so built-up and heavy it slides down and destroys everything. Sometimes we’d avoid them when we were younger, you remember. Ice-dodging. When the snow slides off the cliffs by the sea and makes those large waves.”

“Yeah,” Floyd says. “I figured that out when you mentioned the sliding. I remember.”

“My favorite mountain,” Jade says, reaching up a hand to pet Floyd’s head, “it’s winter, and I can’t go hiking, because there’s an avalanche warning. I was looking forward to it for so long, even if there aren’t many mushrooms in the winter, you can find other things. Some plants even withstand the cold. I was looking forward to it, I enjoyed myself so much last year. The landscape is simply…breathtaking. Everything is white for miles. It was truly a beautiful sight.”

“So you can’t go because the snow might slide off the cliff and bury you?”

“Precisely.”

“So that’s why you’re tanked out.”

“Floyd.” Jade sits up, turning their cave back into nothing more than a messy pile of blankets. “I am merely extremely disappointed. I am not tanked out.”

“Azul thinks you’re tanked out.”

“Why?”

“Because I told Azul I thought you sounded like you were tanked out.”

“Floyd,” Jade laughs, presses a kiss to his forehead. “I’ve always thought Azul was the worrier, but is it you I really have to keep an eye on?”

“You didn’t go to class today,” Floyd says. “What was I supposed to think? You always go to class.”

“I just needed a day off to recover,” Jade says. “Nothing more. Please tell Azul I will be back at the Lounge tomorrow.”

“Ya sure?”

“Positive.”

“Alright,” Floyd says, shoving Jade flat on his back and pulling the blankets back over them, “But I’m watching you, Jade.”

“Watch all you like,” he says softly, pulling in Floyd for a real, full kiss on the mouth. “But I assure you, I’m perfectly fine.”

Floyd kisses him back, hot and deep and like always he’s all tongue, licking into Jade’s mouth like he can’t get enough. He always finds himself kissing so hungrily, out of control, like he wants to eat and be eaten. Jade kisses his neck, the base of his throat, then back to his lips again. Their bodies writhe together, legs tangled up so much one body can’t be told from the other. Kissing, kissing, kissing. Floyd breaks and leans down to place his teeth over Jade’s throat for a tentative bite, and Jade can’t help but let out a soft noise of delight.

There’s a deep, rumbling vibration from somewhere that breaks the atmosphere.

_Vrrrrr. Vrrrrr. Vrrrr._

His phone. He picks it up, flicks it open. It’s a text from Jamil.

_Practice has started. Please come. It’s a pain in the ass if you don’t._

Right. Basketball practice. Winter is championship season, and they’re not half-bad this year.

“Sorry Jade,” he says, placing a kiss on Jade’s throat where he was about to bite down. “I’ve gotta go. I promised, and if I don’t Jamil’ll get all naggy. He’s naggier now that ever. Worse than Azul. I’ll see ya later.”

He grabs his duffle bag from underneath a pile of dirty clothes and takes off, not even bothering to brush his mussed-up hair or button the top over where Jade has left a small kiss mark. Jamil had just said to come, he didn’t say in what condition.

Practice is boring otherwise.

* * *

“He’s not perfectly fine,” Azul says, looking up from the accounting books currently strewn all over his desk. “He forgot to account for the limited tea budget. Who forgets to account for the limited tea budget?”

“Didn’t ya forget that last month yourself?”

“That’s different,” Azul says with a huff, pushing his glasses back up on his nose. “Although I wish it wasn’t true, I make mistakes in my writing far more often than Jade does, though in here,”—he points to his head—“my math is flawless.”

“Uh-huh. So ya don’t believe Jade?”

“You really think this is just about a simple mountain excursion?”

“Dunno,” Floyd says, flopping himself down on Azul’s sofa, “I mean, Jade doesn’t get like this much. Last time was middle school, maybe.”

“And what happened then?”

“He took too many classes,” Floyd says, “and we had our band, y’know, and he practiced every day. And the invitation from NRC came, and he was stressed about learning to walk, and learning to brew human transformation potion, and the expiry date of the doses and—“

“Wait. Where was I in all this?”

“Dunno. Makin’ deals? Jade doesn’t always look like he’s stressed.”

“Is he stressed now?”

“He said he just needed a day off, isn’t that enough? He was fine today, he went to class. Went back to the room now, he’s gonna do the essay he has to do to make up for missin’ class yesterday.”

“The tea budget, Floyd,” Azul says, hastily scribbling away on his notepad without looking up. “He feels more distant than usual. The zeal is missing.”

“So you think Jade’s not fine?”

“Didn’t I say that?”

“Ah. ‘spose you did, yeah. Sorry. Sometimes I only half-listen, ya talk too much.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Azul grouses, slamming the accounting book shut with a little too much force. “But we need to solve this problem at hand.”

“What’re we gonna do? Jade can’t go camping. We didn’t even get a winter break,” Floyd grumbles. “Spent halfa it over in the desert being flung around like a coupla lobsters in a net. No thanks to that sea snake. Well, guess it was fun though. It was nice gettin’ out of the dorm for a change.”

“That’s true,” Azul says. “Normally we’d spend winter break with the Lounge closed and we’d relax, but we did spend an awful lot of energy after all. Not that it wasn’t worth it,” he says, eyeing his phone with a sly smile. “We did get some nice _memories_ , after all.”

“Yeah, but Jade did a lotta work, and then we still had homework, and then we had to open the Lounge again…doesn’t matter to me, I just don’t do stuff when I don’t feel like it—“

“Yes. I’m well aware.”

“—but Jade does all the stuff you ask him to. Maybe we gotta give him a day off?”

“I’m thinking more than that,” Azul says, scribbling on a piece of paper on his notepad and tearing it off, then coming over and dropping it down so it lands on Floyd’s chest. “We’re going to need these.”

“Are they gonna help Jade?”

“Read it,” Azul says, putting on his coat and heading towards the door. “You’ll figure it out. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some business opportunitites to feel out. Remember to lock the door on the way out.”

“Fine.”

He lays there on the sofa for a moment, listening to Azul’s footsteps fade before he finally bothers to pick up the list off his chest. He’s in no mood for shopping or whatever plan Azul has turning in that brain of his, until he picks up the list and begins skimming. Bottled water, fruit, packaged snacks, Jade’s favorite blend of tea. Then, a note:

_Floyd. I know you can get these. Use your head._

He makes an annoyed noise, not wanting to read further, but then he catches sight of the first item on the list under that.

- _Handcuffs_

Oh, not boring at all.

* * *

Jade Leech knows the exact name for what he’s feeling in human language.

Melancholy.

A persistent feeling of disappointment and lethargy where the days just seem to almost drag where before they had seemed to lively and fun. It had initially only started with the avalanche warning that had first come to his attention last week, and disappointing as that was, it was bearable.

Then began the second avalanche of sorts.

There’s the Mostro Lounge to manage, the usual amount of classwork and homework, the general vice prefect duties. Floyd’s been running back and forth between basketball club practice on weekdays and the Lounge and matches on weekends. Winter is tournament season.

He brushes a hand to his lips. There’s still a warm spark there when he thinks about how Floyd had cuddled him and kissed him, and how rare that had been lately.

Not unusual, too often Floyd’s attention span swayed one way or another, and when something grabbed it, it could grab hard. Floyd would spend feverish weeks determined to focus on something trivial but fascinating, like learning to headspin or throwing a 3-point freethrow that was guaranteed to land without missing. Things that came to him with a level of natural ease, but that he could still spend enough time determinedly perfecting for nothing but his own personal amusement. Things that, after he’d perfected them, he’d sometimes forget about entirely to begin with, as though he’d never spent so much effort perfecting them in the first place.

Like Floyd, he too can usually find something to occupy himself. On the surface there always seems to be something new to learn, a skill he can take up and polish ’til it shines. However, lately there’s been a heavy loneliness in his limbs, something dragging him down into the sediment. Maybe it’s not the cancellation of his trip to begin with, maybe that had only been the trigger. The single flake in the blizzard that had made everything too heavy, and made it all come crashing down.

Truth be told, he misses Floyd’s warmth.

Often times he’s the one staying up late cleaning the Lounge or running some numbers, only to come back to the room and find Floyd already dead asleep, curled up against his comforter in nothing but his underwear. Floyd’s snoring is the background noise that soothes him while he finishes his classwork, and then he’ll go to press a kiss to Floyd’s forehead, and Floyd will stir slightly in his sleep. They may sleep in separate beds, but with the soft sound of Floyd’s breathing, the soft glow of the lamp illuminating his sleeping form, they’re always together. Floyd is always with him, even when his body is not.

Lately, that feeling seems to have drifted.

Floyd often comes back late from the practices the basketball club has been running, sometimes straight to work at the Lounge, and sometimes skipping out entirely. He always comes back with face flushed, hair wet from his shower, and falls into a dream so deep he doesn’t even wake when Jade places a kiss to his damp forehead.

He had been looking forward to his mountain excursion solely as a reason to push himself away from all this, to get out and be alone. The mountain would be the place where his worries could dissolve into the vastness of it all, until like everything it all blurs together in nothing but endless white. He would refresh himself, away from the Lounge, away from Azul, away from Floyd, and would come back with a new sense of refreshment, new plants to put into his terrariums, a new purpose aside from his daily routines. Even routine would stop feeling so routine at the end of it all, a new spark after being away from it.

Some part of him had been betting on all that so much, and had found his plan for it without flaw to the point he hadn’t even thought simple human intervention could ruin it. It had been a simple trip, one he had also made the year before. Nothing about it should’ve gone so wrong.

But yet it had, and now he was left without much interesting to look forward to until basketball championships ended or Azul decided on some other mildly fascinating investment project for him to headlong put all of his wits into.

He thinks of maybe just sleeping again, if at least to allow him some respite from the sheer restlessness and frustration he feels. Still, it’s too hot under the blankets, and he feels as though he doesn’t want to quite sleep yet. He glances at the clock. Seven in the evening.

A perfect time for tea.

He buttons up his dorm uniform neatly, puts on his shined shoes and heads to the kitchen to see what teas are in stock. He’d accidentally bought too much yesterday, so there will be overflow, which will likely end up in the dorm kitchen. They’ll have to drink it all before the flavor goes stale.

He’s surprised to find a canister of tea already sitting neatly in the center of the counter, with a note attached to it in neat handwriting he is very familiar with.

_For Jade. Please refresh yourself._

_Azul_

Unexpected. There’s some snacks next to it, too, tea biscuits he likes and little candied slices of lemons.

It almost feels like he’s being lured into a trap of sorts, and the prospect of that sends a deep, shivering thrill down his spine. What is Azul planning? His head spins with possibilities. Azul can be kind, if he deems kindness is going to payoff in the long-term, but there is no reason within his recent knowledge Azul should forsee the need to extend a bit of extra grace to him. If anything, given the budget mistake he’d made, and his sudden absence from the Lounge the day before yesterday, it would make far more sense for Azul to extend stricter punishment.

He bites straight down on one of the lemon slices while the kettle boils and enjoys the sensation it leaves on his tongue, a lingering sourness after such intense sweetness. Beautiful. The exact type of sweet he enjoys, one which does not merely stay a single note, but contains multitudes. He carefully selects another, this time carefully biting into and savoring the sweetness of the crystalized coating and the bitterness of the rind.

The kettle whistles a high-pitched howl, and he turns off the stove, waits for the temperature to settle before brewing the tea. After a minute, once the tea is steeping and he turns to return the kettle to the stove, he feels a pair of eyes on him, fixed on the nape of his neck. Without turning he knows those eyes.

“Azul,” he says, turning to grab the teapot from the table and remove the steeped tea leaves, “did you want some tea?”

“Were you making this much for yourself?”

“Ah,” he says, noticing he clearly has made a pot big enough for several people, “I suppose I made this much without thinking.”

“Then it’s good I’m here, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

He pours a cup for them both, serves each with two biscuits and one of the candied lemon slices. Azul has such a smile on his face, Jade’s favorite type of smile he makes, the one hiding something exciting about to unfold. The tea’s aroma is calming, earthy and with a warm finish. However, the mood is anything but calm, Azul having brought with him a strange atmosphere into the kitchen, and it’s leaving Jade with a delicious tension up his spine, one that makes all his nerves stand on end, as though he’s swallowed down the whole box of those crystallized lemon slices all at once.

Azul takes a bite of his biscuit. “There’s something I need to ask you, Jade.”

“Go ahead, Azul.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re certain?”

He takes another sip of his tea and then a bite of his lemon slice. “It’s a temporary melancholy. It will pass. I will be at the Lounge tomorrow, if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

“We’re closing the Lounge tomorrow,” Azul says with strange firmness. “We’ve loaned it out for a private party.”

“Ah. In that case, we should go right away to prepare—“

“No need,” Azul says, laying a hand gently across his forearm, as though Jade is prepared to jump out of his seat at any moment. “It’s been taken care of.”

“Then, in that case, please tell me what you need,” he says, “and I will gladly do it.”

Azul’s fingers gently slide down and along his arm, until Azul’s hand is gently resting over his. “What I need, Jade,” he says, “is for you to not overwork yourself.”

He says it again with that same smile from earlier, the one that makes another thrilling shiver shoot down Jade’s spine. Azul’s thumb beings to rub slow circles against the back of his hand, and the tension in the room seems to reach a peak, something that thrums like the second before breaking through the surface tension of a pool to open air.

“I’m not overworked,” he says. “I just seem to be lacking in an outlet for a hobby. But don’t worry, Azul. I’m sure I’ll find something.”

“I have something in mind for you,” Azul says. The words roll so smoothly off his silver tongue Jade’s pulse begins to uptick, waiting for the petals of this trap to unfurl, to reveal what lies at the center of whatever Azul has come here to ensnare him into.

“And?”

Azul tangles his fingers in Jade’s own, stands and circles the small tea table until he’s standing over Jade’s chair. To him, to Floyd, Azul has always seemed quite tiny, but having him loom like this, he looks monstrously tall. He places his other hand on Jade’s chin, then drops their hands and clasps Jade’s jaw firmly, pulls him forward.

Ah, it’s been to long since he’s kissed Azul.

Maybe the last time was after the entrance ceremony, if he remembers correctly, when the the three of them had decided to try out Azul’s new prefect room and christen it properly. It’s always like he remembers, Azul tastes like the tea this time, but his lips, his skin has the smell of salt, and Azul’s beautiful grey lashes flutter against the tops of his cheekbones.

Azul kisses him more hungrily than he’s used to, biting at his bottom lip, sucking it and pushing their mouths together so fiercely Azul’s teeth scrape his own. There’s nothing more he wants than to reach out and pull Azul in his lap, perhaps to clear the table entirely with a sweep of his pen, send the dishes to the sink and have Azul right here in the kitchen. There’s a rising appetite in him Azul brings forth, but Azul’s got him pinned under his hands, jaw locked firmly in place. He can do nothing but kiss Azul back and let himself be unwound underneath that touch.

It’s pleasant, this feeling, the way Azul starts to slowly part Jade’s lips with small licks of his tongue, the way he licks into Jade’s mouth and curls his tongue around those sharp teeth. It always makes him shiver, the feeling of Azul pushing against his teeth, the soft muscle of Azul’s tongue skirting those points, then dipping to caress his own tongue and stroking the inside of his cheeks.

Azul’s hand releases suddenly, leaving him with only the memory of where those fingers were firmly holding his jaw, as though there’s still a phantom hand of Azul’s there holding him in place. He has the urge to pull Azul into his lap now, and goes to turn his chair, but Azul picks up both their tea saucers, places them next to the sink, and beckons Jade to follow him to the door.

“Come.”

His whole body hums at the thrill of it all, the way Azul commands it, and the details are left for him to string together on his own, what Azul intends, what is meant by all of this.

They end up at Azul’s room, and surprisingly, instead of opening the lock himself, Azul knocks.

“Ah. Took ya forever. Oh! Jade’s here, good. Hi Jade,” Floyd says merrily, and if he was already wondering what Azul might be up to, now his head really begins to spin with a bunch of possibilities.

None of them are disappointing.

All of them are thrown out of his brain the moment he’s ushered inside the room and he eyes up Floyd, who is already in his underwear and nothing else. Floyd greets him with a kiss, not at all chaste or hesitant but a deep, hungry kiss, hungrier than Azul could ever be. The type of kiss that wants to devour him whole. It makes him shiver, and he’s thankful Floyd has already wrapped his arms around him so tightly, or he fears his human legs might actually give out.

Better still is when Floyd scoops him up, presses another kiss to his lips and easily tosses him onto Azul’s bed like he’s made of sea foam.

Part of him has all his wits about him, but another part of him is marvelling at the way being kissed by both Azul and Floyd makes his brain fog up, as though he’s drunk. There’s a slight haze there that induces some passivity, something that lets him linger his thoughts on the softness of Azul’s sheets while Floyd busies himself taking off his shoes and socks one by one, and Azul starts to deftly open the buttons of his shirt.

Then Floyd bites down.

Floyd kneels himself on the bed next to him and hovers his lips over the spot he knows Jade likes, the center of his soft human throat, and he bites down with a fierceness that draws a beautiful bloom of blood but doesn’t break the skin. Instead the blood just hovers there, beneath the skin, where soon it will blossom into a strange assortment of blues and purples and the entire school will stare, because it’s not a place one can easily cover up with just a necktie and collared shirt. Floyd’s possession of him, hovering just beneath his skin, a world visible to those on the surface, but one they do not dare to touch.

Azul strokes it gently, fingers following the fresh marks Floyd leaves. He strips off his own clothes until he’s naked, and Floyd too has shed his underwear at some point, left them in a hasty pile on the floor next to Jade’s socks and shoes. There’s a slight lull as they all clamour to find room on Azul’s bed, Floyd continuing to trail kisses that tickle and flutter against his neck and jaw, and Azul stroking him softly, marvelling at the lines of his body as though this is the first time he’s seen Jade this way.

“So,” he says, finally, and he cannot help the delighted smile that unfurls across his lips as Floyd gently kisses into them. “What sort of plot is this Azul? Floyd?”

“We’re gonna make you feel so good, Jade,” Floyd murmurs into the curve of his jaw. “So good you’ll feel like you’re swimming.”

“Floyd,” he says, and he can’t help but take Floyd’s head in his hands, press their foreheads together and nuzzle him before placing a light kiss across those lovely lips. “I told you’d I’d be fine.”

“Simply put,” Azul says, taking two fingers and lightly turning Jade’s head so they’re eye-to-eye, “Floyd and I love you, and we thought we’d devise something to help alleviate your stress. You relax. We’re going to take care of everything.”

“Oh, are you?” He can’t supress the delighted laugh that comes out at that. It thrills him to his core, the thought of these two plotting together against him simply for his own sake. “I look forward to see whatever the two of you have schemed behind my back, then.”

Azul smiles back a beautifully wry smile, the kind of smile he only slips into when he has something dangerous and marvellous up his sleeve.

“Floyd,” Azul says, “I think it’s time to unpack the things you acquired.”

“I can’t wait, can’t wait,” Floyd murmurs into the taught skin of Jade’s neck, and he turns Jade’s head to give him one more kiss before he slides off the bed and grabs a large, thin black suitcase from under it. “This was Azul’s idea,” he says, “but the more I thought about it, the more I like it too. Azul said it’d be good if ya cried, just a little if we make ya feel it enough.”

“I didn’t—!“ Azul says, but he sighs and pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose and tucks his lone, long curl behind his ear. “I just merely said that for your sake.”

“Keep tellin’ yourself that,” Floyd says, hauling a set of something very black and shiny up on the bed.

There’s some kind of chain, for certain. He can hear that, but both Azul and Floyd seem to want him to stay put flat on his back, because they both eye him a little warily when he stirs.

“First, this, Jade,” Floyd says merrily, and he leers a little as he snaps one fabric-lined handcuff around Jade’s wrist, and then looks around, as if at a loss as to where to attach them to. “Azul, this room sucks, you don’t have any bars.”

“I think if we just put them on and tell Jade to keep his hands above his head he’ll be good,” Azul says with a sigh. “It’s about the feel of it.” Azul places a gentle hand to his cheek and strokes it lightly. “You’ll behave, right Jade?”

It’s electric, the way Azul says it in that voice, coaxing out of him an attempt at obedience that they both know might only be surface-level. Still, he can’t say he’s not a little aroused by the idea of having to keep his hands to himself while Azul and Floyd attempt to do all the work. If Floyd really wants to make him cry, this much alone would never elicit such a thing.

Still, Floyd has one more pile of sleek black fabric and metal in his hands. Two more handcuffs, of sorts, attached to a thin metal bar.

“I didn’t tell you to get that,” Azul says sharply.

“It was a gift,” Floyd says, patting Jade’s flank so he raises his legs to let Floyd remove his underwear. “He told me to take it ‘ _gratuit’.”_

“What did you have to give?” Azul marvels.

“Nothin’ much. He had me sit, inspected my teeth for over an hour. Then he handed it over. Sitting still was the worst part,” he grumbles. “It was super boring.”

“And I trust you asked how to use it?”

“’S not like it’s hard to figure out,” Floyd says, undoing the buckles and sliding the cuffs around Jade’s thighs. “But y’know, that Gull doesn’t shut up, so I got a lesson whether I wanted it or not. Stopped listening halfway through, though.”

“You did all that for me?” Jade says, and he feels another laugh bubbling out of himself. The tension in the air is reaching that thickness again like in the kitchen, but with his body thrumming like it does before a storm.

“I’d do anything for you, Jade,” Floyd murmurs, and he buckles the second cuff shut and reaches down to nip a quick bite from Jade’s inner thigh. “I love you so much.”

“And I, you,” he says back as Floyd finishes setting the bar in place.

It’s a thick, sleek spreader bar, designed to keep his thighs apart. Floyd gives it a tug, checking it’s firmly in place, and leans back on his knees to examine his handiwork. His expression still has that sleepy-eyed sweetness he so often regards Jade with, but there’s a lazily growing hunger to it now, a part of Floyd that looks like he’s desperately stirring in his core. Floyd crawls up the bed to lay beside him, and he can feel the press of Floyd’s length against him, already half-hard without any sort of touch.

“You look good like this, Jade,” he says. “Your thighs were so nice to squeeze those around, so soft. You’re delicious.”

He shivers at the sensation of Floyd’s breath as it curls around his ear, the soft strokes Floyd is painting his legs with, finger by finger, slow and steady.

Azul slips off the bed and takes off his glasses, placing them on the dresser.

Floyd’s attention instantly snaps up, and his eyes widen excitedly. There are only two reasons Azul would see the purpose to remove his glasses, the first being for bathing or sleep.

The second—

“You’re gonna do it?” Floyd asks excitedly.

“Hush,” Azul says. “I thought it would…add something. Please don’t stare, Floyd, you know how I hate when you stare like that.”

“Can’t help it,” he hums. “I wanna see my favorite Azul.”

“It _has_ been so long,” Jade says, trying to contain his excitement at least a little better than Floyd. He finds he’s unable to surpress it fully, and a wicked smile still leaks out, anticipating what’s about to come. “Come and touch us already.”

“I’m doing this for _you_ , Jade, don’t forget,” Azul says. “Floyd, you don’t forget either.”

“I won’t, don’t harp,” Floyd says, a tinge of annoyance his voice. “Get on with it already.”

Azul takes a deep breath and there’s a bubbling sound, like that of something wet and heavy and soft boiling over from a cauldron and slapping down on the cold stone floor. His skin darkens all the way up the nape of his neck, and from his waist unfurls and blooms a large set of eight thick, writhing tentacles where his human legs had been. When he opens his eyes they stand out a bit starker against his grey face, a touch colder and bluer, as though something in him that’s suppressed in his human body is shining from within.

The most beautiful Azul for the both of them, Azul as they had met him so many years ago.

He looks like he’s floating, the way his legs move beneath him, and now there’s barely room for him on the bed, so he sits himself down atop the comforter but allows all of his extra limbs to drape idly over the sides. It’s almost like a trap in itself, the way they look so relaxed and lifeless, but Jade knows any instant, with barely a thought, Azul can command them anywhere he chooses.

Anywhere.

He shivers, delighted. His arms are bound, he can’t close his thighs, and Azul more than has him at his mercy if he so chooses.

Azul lifts a single tentacle, the one closest to Jade, and caresses it along his jaw. “I thought about what I could offer you,” Azul says in a soft whisper, though his tone is anything but, “and I remembered I’m the only one who can give you this.”

“Yes,” he whispers back, and the way it comes from him almost sounds like a prayer.

“Do you want me to fill you up, Jade?”

“Yes,” he says, again, and his voice comes out even more feverish, a man wishing for god to grant him a boon.

Azul has something in him in this form, a sort of erotic charisma seldom few could ever have the pleasure of seeing. He raises one of his hands to cup Jade’s chin, to kiss him, and while for any human that would occupy so much of their touch, for Azul it is barely a hindrance.

Those gorgeous, shiny black tentacles begin to writhe, and slowly he feels them on him, first at his ankles, and then they begin to creep up over his thighs. Laying next to him, Floyd makes a soft, pleased noise, to which he is certain he’s not the only one about to be consumed by this.

The tentacles aren’t entirely smooth, covered with those small, round suckers that latch and release. Each one feels like Azul’s mouth when they suck at him, like he’s being slowly kissed over every exposed bit of his skin and they crawl up his body, until finally one makes its way between his open thighs, and he can’t even do anything but tremble on the bed as it slips inside him, already coated in a thin layer of something wet and slippery that lets it open him up with ease. Another wraps itself around his length, slowly lowers one of those suckers onto the head of it and begins to tease. It adheres, then slowly, achingly slowly, loosens and falls away before affixing itself again. It’s so aching, the way it teases and sets such a fire in his nerves that he almost forgets about the one Azul has put inside him until that, too, begins to move.

He has, in some ways, forgotten the full memory of this feeling, the way being filled by Azul is different from being filled by another. The way it _writhes_ is unholy, the way it pushes into him and fills him up in every spot at once, moulding inside his body in a way that it almost feels like a new part of him, a newly-developed organ of this human form. So lithe and fleshy, he can feel the soft, muscular tip of it as it presses up into his slick insides, brings him to a high that lets him see a bright white shine dance on the back of his eyelids like sunlight through the waves.

Azul pulls himself forward further, until he’s laying next to Jade, head on the same pillow, long lithe tentacles still caressing Jade’s body in steady rhythm as though the two aren’t even part of the same being.

“I’m riling Floyd up for you,” he murmurs, so low so only Jade can hear. “Unlike you, he keeps trying to close his legs…but I have more than enough of my own to keep him open.”

He tries to say something, to respond, but hearing Azul’s voice low in his ear, and then the moan of Floyd next to him brings such a heavy shiver about within him, such a burning in his core that he opens his mouth and finds nothing comes. There is only the sound of him choking down a breath as Azul continues to slither about inside him, the tentacle around his erection now pumping steadily and pulsing, the small suctions on it driving him to a point where he feels as though any moment he might go over the edge, but they don’t remain long enough to let him actually reach that point.

“You feel like you’re close.”

Where there has been pleased noises from Floyd at his side, there’s the noise of rustling, and a wet sound so filthy he trembles just from hearing it.

“Azul—!“

“I’ll give you this,” Azul says, ignoring Floyd’s whine. The tentacle he draws up the inside of Jade’s thigh is wet and hot. “Floyd was wriggling on it ’til now, and now it’s your turn.”

“Oh,” Floyd says, turning over to watch. His cheeks are flushed a bright pink that extends all the way down his chest in large splotches, and his half-lidded eyes look slightly drunk. It seems he’s already over the disappointment of being left empty, being giving something even more exciting to focus on. “I want to watch Jade get two.”

“Azul—“ he starts to say, but he loses track of where he was meant to go, because his breath catches in his throat as Azul deftly slides the second tentacle inside him along the first.

He’s so full, so sore from being stretched like this, but Azul strokes him so beautiful from the inside that within moments his thighs are shaking violently. His head feels hazy, everything is a blur and sounds so far away, like hearing a conversation on the surface from two meters below the waves.

“Give him a kiss, Floyd,” Azul’s voice says from somewhere above his head.

Floyd’s mouth comes down on his, hungrily, and those beautiful, large hands come down against his chest, rub at his nipples and pinch them lightly while Azul continues to stroke him to a fever-pitch. He feels a moan rising in his throat, and Floyd swallows it down, down, down with the rest of him, into the depths. Azul drags a release from a deep part of him, something that wracks his whole body, all of his human limbs shivering and when he comes to Floyd is holding him, kissing him everywhere, eyes-nose-lips-cheeks, murmuring his name, just his name.

Azul, too, he realizes is saying it, stroking his hand across Jade’s collarbones, praising him. “Jade. You were wonderful.”

“Thank you,” he replies, though his brain is still so fogged over he says it partly on impulse, even though he means it. He blinks once, twice, until the room comes back into clearer view and he finds the energy to turn his head to face Azul, who looks equally as exhausted. “ _You_ were wonderful.”

“Our favorite Azul,” Floyd says, sitting up and stretching his limbs. “That was fun. Next is my turn, right?”

“Jade might need a moment,” Azul says, “hold on, I need to…remove them,” he says, seemingly struggling for a polite way to phrase it.

His thighs are still splayed wide open, so he has no choice but to arch his back and choke down a moan as Azul pulls himself from within him with a slick popping noise, so lewd it makes his toes curl. Azul throws a towel on the bed, and Floyd takes it, begins to wipe off between his legs a little too roughly, and he hisses slightly at how sensitive everything still is.

“Ah,” Azul says, sliding himself off the bed and shrinking back to human form, “I may have…inked. A little.”

“It’s cute,” Floyd says. “Even you can’t hold yourself back when Jade looks sexy in front of you.”

Azul pulls a second towel from the cabinet and wipes himself off before setting it over the dark splotch of ink on the bright white sheets and laying himself down next to Jade.

“Are you ready for round two, Jade?” Floyd murmurs.

He runs a single finger up the back of his thigh, and Jade knows he does it just to watch him helplessly shiver. Floyd has seen him through enough orgasms to know how sensitive he gets, and all the right places to touch. Like this, legs spread wide and his hands still held above his head, not entirely useless but cuffed together, he is entirely at Floyd’s mercy.

That is not always a disadvantageous position, depending on the day.

Today, Floyd looks entirely unmerciful as he strokes a single finger down Jade’s flaccid length and watches him twitch.

Not disadvantageous at all.

Floyd reaches to the side table next to Azul’s bed and pulls off a tall glass bottle, one Jade can’t help but recognise very well: eel slick. The very slime he’d wrung from Floyd, now being poured liberally into Floyd’s palm.

Before slicking himself up, Floyd slicks up just one finger and brings it down, slowly circles his entrance, teasing him again. Anything but merciful. With Azul inside him, he’d had much more mental capacity, but he’s so sore and spent that he can’t help but let his voice escape, to moan as Floyd very slowly pushes just the tip of one of those long, beautiful fingers inside him, and then slowly pulls it back out.

He can’t help the sound that emerges from him, something slightly disappointed. Floyd rubs his thumb against his hole again, against that empty place that, seemingly stretched so thoroughly by Azul it’d been at its limit, is now aching again to be filled.

Floyd sits up on his knees and slicks himself up with more of the slime from the bottle. He hadn’t gone soft by any means once Azul had pulled out of him, but he’s clearly trying to get himself to the point of achingly hard just for Jade. The light shines down on him from overhead, the shell chandelier only a soft glow, but it’s enough to put Floyd’s tall, kneeling form in silhouette.

It reminds Jade of his first day in this body, when they’d swam to the shallows to drink their potions and learn to walk, just the three of them. They’d crawled on to the beach that day with their new legs, and Floyd had made it there first. He’d sat himself up on his knees just like now, wind whipping his hair, smiling lazily, as though he’d been birthed out of the sea foam just then and there, just for Jade to crawl towards.

He still looks like that now, a little less wild and reckless, much steadier sitting on his knees, but no less beautiful.

Floyd slicks himself up to full hardness in his own palm, until he’s red and aching and waiting. He reaches down and pulls Jade forward slightly to get a better angle, and pushes Jade’s legs back until they’re folded nearly to his chest.

“Ready, Jade?” he smiles. “I’m gonna make you cry like I promised.”

“You’re cute when you try,” he teases back, still slightly breathless, and he knows with how sore and sensitive he is, Floyd just might make him swallow those words.

Floyd does not even go gently. He pushes in the way he always does, with a steadiness that offers no relief, that fills Jade until he’s until to his hilt, even deeper than Azul had gone. His breath chokes in his throat, no voice comes out, but he can feel it in his chest, he can feel the aching, unearthly noise he wants to release, the sound Floyd’s brought about in him.

He can feel the stretch around him, the part of himself that gives way for Floyd to be seated so deeply inside him. It’s sore, and he feels the tremble in his body when Floyd pulls back and the head of his length brushes firmly over that spot Azul had spent so much time slowly teasing, the part of this human body that longs for that touch over and over again until something it it blooms.

Floyd begins to find his rhythm, steady at first, and he can feel the part of Floyd holding himself back, the part that’s calculated in his head that he wants to see Jade cry, and is slowly testing just what part of Jade will let him do that. He wraps a hand around Jade’s half-hard length and slowly begins to stroke that, too, in rhythm with his thrusts, a leering grin across his face once Jade’s voice begins to escape again from his throat.

“Do ya want it harder?” Floyd says. “You always like it when I do it hard.”

“Yes,” he breathes, and reaches his long limbs up to ensnare Floyd with the handcuff chain, just for a moment, to lift himself up and steal a kiss. “Make me cry, Floyd.”

Floyd rolls his hips, as though he’s preparing, and then begins to thrust slowly, but with a heaviness, putting the full weight of his body behind each thrust, filling Jade so deeply he can’t help but cry out. His breaths become so sweet, so ragged, and his legs begin to shake to the point Floyd digs his fingers deeply into his thighs to steady them.

For a moment, Floyd stops, and he can’t help the choking on moan of disappointment, until he hears the click of a buckle, and there’s suddenly a heaviness lifted from his legs and the cool rush of air on his sweat-soaked skin. Floyd makes a grunt, which is followed by the noise of the spreader bar being thrown on the floor in a heap.

“Floyd—“ Azul says, as if to remind him _that’s not ours_.

“Don’ need it,” Floyd says roughly, repositioning himself slightly. “’S in the way. Azul, kiss him. Kiss Jade for me.”

Floyd’s expression changes the moment he looks back up and his eyes meet Jade’s before Azul puts a hand to Jade’s chin. Azul turns him to the side to kiss him fully and lick up sweetly into the satin of his cheeks, to once again lace his tongue around the sharp points of Jade’s teeth in that way that makes him tremble. Floyd has that gleam in his eyes, the one that wants to devour, the one that sends a hot, fast shiver of delight all the way down Jade’s spine to his toes. Azul pulls him in tighter, but then Floyd pulls back, at first only lightly.

Then, with a sort of animalistic sound of delight Floyd pulls Jade’s hips up roughly, throws one of Jade’s legs over his shoulder and begins to start thrusting with reckless abandon, still within some sort of rhythm, but with the full amount of his body weight behind it. It’s rough and deep and Azul’s swallowing down whatever noises he might be making, until Floyd wraps an arm around his neck and forcefully pulls them apart.

He kisses deep and hungrily, pressing Jade deep into the bed so much that it shakes. They break the kiss but their mouths are still so close, near kissing, lips just lightly touching, breathing the same breaths from each other. He’s dizzy from it, dizzy from the way Floyd roughly ruts into him and he brings his arms up again, loops the handcuff chain over Floyd’s nape and digs his nails in deep to Floyd’s back, hard enough to cut little half-moons into the flesh.

Floyd retaliates with a bite into his shoulder, deeper than before. For Floyd, one bite is never enough, he peppers them like kisses, saving Jade’s favorite place for last again, and he bites down in the center of Jade’s throat deeper than before, the type of bite that puts him over the edge.

His back arches, and Floyd holds him tightly in the crook of one arm, still fucking him through his orgasm, trying to release his own deep into Jade’s body. As he comes down from his high he grips Floyd tightly, feeling Floyd is close but not yet done, panting heavily, into his neck. He grips tightly, still digging his nails into Floyd’s back, kissing and sucking at his neck, waiting to feel Floyd’s body go limp against him too. Finally, Floyd finishes off with the last of a few deep thrusts, then collapses on top of him, seemingly unable to move.

“I’ll get water,” Azul says calmly, having mostly been a spectator, and now being the only one of them left with any sort of energy.

The two of them say nothing, just lay there, Floyd still collapsed on top of him until he lazily pulls out with a sloppy, wet noise, rolls off and cuddles up next to him instead. They’re both sweaty, and it’s too soon to cuddle properly, so they mostly just lay side by side, Jade’s hands wandering to find one of Floyd’s. He’s still bound by the handcuffs, so he takes one of Floyd’s hands in both of his, and together they stay like that, both trying to find their breath.

“I decided on tea,” Azul says triumphantly, returning with a teapot, three teacups and the remainder of the biscuit package tucked under his arm. “Ah, Jade, you’re still cuffed, let me get those off you.”

He undoes the manacles and unceremoniously drapes clean towels over both their naked bodies, which rouses them both to finally sit up and wipe themselves off. Azul hands Jade his underwear, which he slips on, instantly feeling how sore and stretched he is, and how much his hips will ache in the morning. A bit of seed Floyd has left inside him dribbles down his thigh, a slight annoyance, but worth it for the price of feeling Floyd rut into him so recklessly. He cleans it up with the towel and tries not to think about how tomorrow he actually might lose the ability to walk on two legs, if only for a day.

Azul hands them both tea and does a quick cleaning spell on the sheets, which isn’t enough to get them clean enough to pass as fresh laundry, but which does at least make them clean enough to sleep on. Floyd pulls the comforter open, tea balanced precariously in one hand, and slips in, then pats the center spot next to him, which Jade understands as his invitation.

“Jade,” Azul says smoothly, buttoning himself up into a neat pajama top but neglecting to put on bottoms, “do you feel any better?”

“Is it possible to not feel better after such a thorough treatment?” he laughs, taking a sip of his tea. “Though I promise you, it was just a mild case of the blues. It would have passed inevitably.”

“Winter blues,” Azul says. “I _have_ heard others talk of those moods. Were you just having your winter blues, Jade? Maybe Floyd's moodiness has rubbed off on you.”

“Perhaps something like that,” he says with a light laugh. “Though I think by tomorrow, I’ll find they have passed, thanks largely to the two of you.”

“Didn’t keep my promise, though,” Floyd says, taking a bite of two of the tea biscuits at once and lightly pouting. “Didn’t make ya cry.”

“There’s next time, Floyd,” he murmurs, planting a kiss on his temple. “You can try as many times as you want.”

Now that they’re no longer flushed and sticky, Floyd lays his head on Jade’s shoulder and nuzzles into the nape of his neck. “You wanna do this again, Jade?”

“Not tonight,” he says, wincing slightly as Floyd’s hair rubs over a fresh bite mark, “but I know you have the stamina for it.”

“Floyd and I will be serving the Lounge’s party tomorrow,” Azul says, “so not tonight. Or tomorrow. School nights probably aren’t the best, either.”

“Maybe Saturday. After Floyd’s basketball match.”

“Yeah, come watch the match,” Floyd says with a sort of lazy amusement. “When I score, you can reward me later.”

“I’ll put it in the schedule,” Azul says, grabbing his planner off the desk. “Saturday evening. The three of us.”

“Isn’t it kinda weird if you schedule it?”

“Just means we have something to look forward to,” Azul says firmly. “There’s nothing wrong with being efficient. We all have things to do we can’t miss otherwise.” He slides the planner back in its designated spot on the desk and slides next to Jade on his other side, turning off the lights with a flick of his pen. “We have to sleep, Floyd, the Lounge has to be ready by noon.”

“Dumb,” Floyd says. “Shoulda closed it.”

“We’d lose valuable profit. That’s why we booked only a single party instead’ve opening all day. Now _sleep_. Goodnight, both of you.”

Azul pulls a black satin sleep mask down over his eyes, but not before reaching over to kiss them both on the lips once each.

Clearly not wanting to hear any more nagging from Azul, Floyd pulls Jade in close with one arm, and then pulls the comforter up and over them both, leaving them together in the warm dark.

“Jade,” he whispers.

“Yes?”

Floyd pulls him close, kisses him gently on the mouth, then each of his cheeks, and finally dips to kiss over both the bite marks on the center of his throat.

“Nothing,” he hums against the skin of Jade’s throat. “Just wanted to say I love you.”

“And I, you.”

Together, they slowly ease each other into sleep, limbs tangled, bound up so tightly it’s hard to tell which limbs belong to whom. Jade strokes Floyd’s hair softly, letting his mind wander, lingering on the feeling of soreness in all his limbs, and how good he feels, how loved, and how his lethargy seems to have evaporated into thin air. Not just sex, no, it could have been anything at all, perhaps, anything to have renewed this type of emotional satisfaction only they can bring about within him, this feeling of fulfilment.

The three of them had crawled up onto that beach together. Floyd had been first, but he had waited. There had not been a thought in his wild heart to stand up alone, or to go further without them, because they had always been three.

He drifts off, squeezed tightly in Floyd’s arms, mind on that sun-soaked beach where Floyd waits for him, newly human hands outstretched, and Azul in the waves next to him, just a few steps behind. In his mind, he can still smell the waves, and remember the shape of his first footprints in the sand, and their’s beside him.

His last thought before he gives into the warm, waiting dark is that he can weather the winter, as long as they are the ones keeping him company until the spring thaw.


End file.
